It's All in the Past

In this Topic, we're going to learn how to talk about things we 'did' by learning how to use verbs in the past tense. In Japanese, the past tense is surprisingly simple and versatile, so mastering this early will pay off quickly.

As expected, the plain and polite forms of the past tense are formed differently.

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る-Verb (Past)
る - Verbs (Past tense)
To make the past form of a る-Verb in Japanese, just like all other conjugations of る-Verbs, you will need to remove the る first. After this, all you need to do is add the auxiliary verb た (casual), or ました (polite).
Fun Fact

ました is actually just ます conjugated with た on the end of it, so it is two (2) auxiliary verbs, not just one. This means that only た gives the meaning of 'past' to a word, while ます keeps its regular role of making the verb more polite.

When た is added to verbs (or any other word), it can have one of three possible meanings.

Past: 過去(かこ) - Happened at some point in the past. (Did/Was)

Completion: 完了(かんりょう) - An action that has finished 'happening'. (Done)

Continuation: 存続(そんぞく) - A new state of something that is continuing. (Has been done)
N5 文法
う-Verb (Past)
う - Verbs (Past tense)
To make the past form of a う-Verb in Japanese, just like all other conjugations of う-Verbs, you will need to change the last kana, before adding the auxiliary verb た (casual), or ました (polite). This change in kana is a bit different to other conjugations of う-Verbs, so let's take a look at them for the casual form.
As can be seen in these examples, the changes consist of った, いた, いだ, んだ, した (the same as the changes for て form, but using た instead). For the conjugations using だ in place of た, this is simply a sound change in the language that happened over the course of history, to make words easier/smoother to say. It is not the auxiliary verb だ.

For the polite past form of う-Verbs, the change in sound is far more consistent. This only requires a change from the う sound, to the い sound within the same column (from う to い, or from く to き, for example).
When た is added to verbs (or any other word), it can have one of three possible meanings.

Past: 過去(かこ) - Happened at some point in the past. (Did/Was)

Completion: 完了(かんりょう) - An action that has finished 'happening'. (Done)

Continuation: 存続(そんぞく) - A new state of something that is continuing. (Has been done)
Caution

With う-Verbs, there are a few verbs that are exceptions to the regular conjugation rules. Please check the structure guide for these.
N5 文法

詳細

Now that we know the basic idea, let's double-check the conjugation rules with our charts, also paying attention to irregular verbs.

Conjugation Station

First, let's see how the chart for る-Verbs looks. These are the simple ones. Drop the る, add た. For ます, we changed す to し and add た.

食べ

- ＋ …
- ＋た
- ＋まし＋た
- ＋ …
- ＋ …
- ＋ …

Now, let's look at the more complicated (but regular) う-Verb chart. Remember, the ending can change based on the sound to make it easier to pronounce.

話

さ
- ＋ …
し
- ＋た
- ＋まし＋た
す
- ＋ …
せ
- ＋ …
そ
- ＋ …

How Irregular

While we're looking at conjugation charts, let's also check how the past form looks for the irregular verbs 来(く)る and する.

くる

こ
- ＋ …
き
- ＋た
- ＋まし＋た
く
- ＋ …
く
れ
- ＋ …
こ
- ＋ …

する

し
- ＋ …
し
- ＋た
- ＋まし＋た
す
る
- ＋ …
す
れ
- ＋ …
し
ろ
- ＋ …

And, as we saw mentioned last lesson, 行(い)く conjugates regularly except for the past and て-form (something we will learn about later). Let's see how the past tense of 行(い)く works.

It is worth noting that we’d expect 行(い)く to look like ‘いいた’ in the past tense, as く would normally change to い. However, this pattern isn’t followed by 行(い)く. Instead, 行(い)く is made easier to say quickly anbd clearly by becoming いった, in the past tense.